06
04/07
2:45 pm
Web app internationalization, are you ready?
I’ve been developing professional web applications for many years. Fortunately I’ve always had to make sure everything was available in 2 languages: French and English. Being from Montreal (Quebec), bilingualism is as common as knowing how to drive. Every web design/development company over here knows that clients want/need bilingual websites.
Almost everyone from this city speaks (and reads) fluently in French and English. I’ve noticed a pattern in many web apps coming from Chicago and Silicon Valley: they are ONLY in English. I think that’s really lame.
One important aspect about developing web apps, and making them multilingual, is that you need to start from day 1. Trying to translate and retrofit an application only once it is completed is quite a gruesome and lengthy task. It won’t happen. I’ve been there and it’s not as easy as it seems. Take a look at blinksale, basecamp, and flickr. Great apps right? What about our Spanish, French and Italian friends?
While viewing the visitor statistics for my blog, I noticed many of my readers are from Spain, Australia, Finland, China and even Israel. Obviously they can read English, but what about the *other* people in those countries who can’t read English? Could they use your app? If the internet helps remove borders between people and countries, so should our web apps.
So, when you’re building your web application, think of all the other people in the world. Instead of competing for the #1 spot in North America, remember that the world is at your fingertips.
Ian Landsman's Weblog v2.0
April 6, 2007
3:41 pm
Why There Isn't More Multilingual Support…
Interesting post by Alex asking why more software doesn't support non English languages. I think what he's leaving out is the significant cost of doing it. HelpSpot for instance is setup to handle different language packs, but it just doesn&a…
bjhess blog
April 6, 2007
10:48 pm
Why not internationalize?…
Alex Williams has an excellent post about internationalizing a new web app as early as possible. Scrawlers is probably a prime candidate to internationalize right off the bat. There isn’t much static text on the site, anyway. Most of it is use…
Derek Allard
April 7, 2007
4:27 pm
This is very insightful! I wrote BambooInvoice as a “scratch my own itch” type of application – only its gained a lot of momentum and requests for internationalization. In fact, just today I wrote Internationalizing your application cannot be an afterthought.
Funny… I wish I had read your post a year ago.
Alex
April 7, 2007
10:52 pm
@Derek: It’s never too late, but having browsed (a lot) through the BambooInvoice code for the last week ;) I can guarantee it will be a hell of a job!
I’ve posted my response on Barry and Ian’s blogs, and the common denominator is that it really depends on your needs.
BambooInvoice is an OpenSource application, which means you can easily gather support from the community to help internationalize it. But you already knew that ;)
It’s times like this when you reflect on your platform of choice, and rejoice at how much time it will save you. :D
heri
April 17, 2007
2:25 pm
but handling more than 1 language complexifies your app, development-wise.
also you need a content deployment plan in both languages. so you end up with websites like bell or rogers that ask you 3 times which province you come from.
I have yet to see a good bilingual website. do you have any examples
Alex
April 17, 2007
10:22 pm
Hahahaaa… Bell and Rogers should NOT be used as examples for multilingual sites. Their web developers are obviously clueless.
What is a “content deployment plan”? Sounds like some sort of corp-speak.
I think you missed the point of my post. I was trying to underline the importance of building a multilingual site from day 1. If you start early, you’ll see it’s actually quite easy to build support for more than 1 language.
If you want examples, just look in my portfolio:
http://www.alexwilliams.ca/portfolio/php/
I will add my most recent projects eventually.
heri
April 19, 2007
8:05 pm
content deployement is when you are publish lots of news/articles/content in both languages. like for example governements who have to comply with laws
anyways, it depends on the website i guess, and its size
Czechidea.com » Blog Archive » Importance of being international
May 6, 2007
7:06 am
[...] international is a topic also for projects primary launched in English. Read more about this at AlexWilliams.ca (from Montreal, bi-lingual place). Multilingual versions had to be thought about at the very [...]